My 4-Ingredient “Thanksgiving Dump Cake” Is the Zero-Effort Dessert Everyone Devours

Here at The Kitchn, we know how overwhelming the holidays can be, and that’s because aside from being food editors, we’re also home cooks juggling all of the same challenges you are. Luckily, Thanksgiving foods don’t have to be complicated in order to be delicious. We’ve got plenty of easy appetizers to get the party started, foolproof main dishes, and stunning sides that will have everyone at the table going back for seconds. 

Dessert can be the most daunting dish of the entire holiday, but it doesn’t have to be. I’ve been making my Thanksgiving dump cake for years, and it’s always the first dessert to go. This dump cake is baked with apples and cranberries under a golden crust until bubbling. Serve it with a scoop of ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream, and finishing the Thanksgiving meal couldn’t be easier or more delicious. 

Get the recipe: Thanksgiving Dump Cake

Holiday foods don’t have to be complicated to be delicious, and my Thanksgiving Dump Cake is the perfect example. Dump cakes are a class of desserts falling somewhere between a cobbler and a crisp with an often fruity filling topped with a caramelized crust. There’s a lot to love about dump cakes, especially the cranberry-apple version I bring to Thanksgiving every year. 

This dessert starts with cans of apple pie filling and whole cranberry sauce, so you can skip all of the peeling, measuring, and mixing that comes with most holiday treats. The ingredients are literally dumped into the baking dish, beginning with the fruit, followed by an even sprinkling of boxed cake mix, and a layer of thinly sliced butter. Not only are there no complicated techniques to perform, you’re actually supposed to avoid stirring the layers of ingredients together. The cake comes out of the oven, with a golden and crispy crust covering a layer of bubbling seasonal fruit.

1. Combine the fruit. Mix 1 can of apple pie filling and 2 cans whole berry cranberry sauce in a baking dish. Stirring the fruit together is the only mixing you’ll do in this recipe. 
2. Sprinkle with cake mix. Shake dry yellow or white cake mix evenly over the fruit. 
3. Top with butter. Cut thin slices of unsalted butter and arrange them evenly over the cake mix for the best buttery coverage.
4. Bake. Bake the dump cake until the fruit bubbles around the edges and the topping is golden-brown. 

Do not stir. While most cake recipes have a long list of instructions, dump cakes do not. Layer the fruit, dry cake mix, and butter in a baking dish and bake. The moisture from the fruit below and butter above turns the cake mix into a cobbler-esque topping that is sweet and caramelized.

Get the recipe: Thanksgiving Dump Cake